A Cornish Legacy
By Fern Britton
It’s time to fall in love with a visit to Cornwall all over again with A Cornish Legacy. Below is the blurb and my review of her latest absorbing book.
Blurb
Escape to Cornwall this summer with the new emotional and uplifting novel from Sunday Times #1 bestselling author Fern Britton
Set by the wild Atlantic coast of Cornwall comes a story about finding home in the most unlikely places.
When Cordelia Jago learns she’s been left the crumbling manor house Wilder Hoo, perched high on the Cornish coast, she wonders if it’s one last cruel joke from beyond the grave.
Having already lost her marriage, her best friend and her career, she’s at rock-bottom. Now she’s inherited a house she hates, full of unhappy memories.
But as she fights with its echoing rooms and whispering shadows, the house begins to exert a pull on her. The wild Cornish landscape, the stark beauty of seagrass and yellow gorse against the deep blue sea, begin to awaken a connection she thought she’d buried forever.
Could she turn around this monstrous wreck of a house – and, along the way, let go of the secrets of the past and heal her heart too?
Review
Cordelia Jago is an interesting character. She doesn’t wear any make-up, is a bit fed up and all is a bit ordinary. She’s also not had things easy, having lost the major thing in life, so you really can feel for her. Things, however, change when she discovers she’s been left a manor house in a will. This manor house, Wilderhoo, like the setting in Cornwall, seems to be quite a character in itself and has quite profound effects on her, which in turn makes things quite thought-provoking for the reader.
What makes this inheritance really different is that Cordelia doesn’t actually want it. She remembers it from another place in time. It becomes quite a mysterious book in that way. It sweeps you up because by this time you want to know why she doesn’t want this big country pile to do up, apart from it being a money pit. Makes you want to read more into what the memories its bringing back as the house then appears to also have a life of its own… It really seems to go with the saying of “walls have ears”. This country pile just knows things and there are conscious and unconscious thoughts that Cordelia then has about it.
The book is succinctly set in both the past and the present, giving a whole picture about what’s been going on. It’s told in a very compelling way, and much like the house pulling Cordelia in, it draws you as a reader into its depths of emotion and life opportunities and life matters.
Fern Britton weaves the seascape, the manor house and the power of memories expertly together, creating a highly atmospheric, highly adept and compelling book.
Bookmarks and Stages by Lou 